By coordinating and combining signals from multiple antenna locations, CoMP operations may make it possible for mobile users to enjoy consistent performance and quality when they access and share videos, photos and other high-bandwidth services whether they are close to the center of a cell or at its outer edges. During CoMP operations, user equipment (UE) may receive signals from multiple sites (e.g., remote radio heads (RRHs) or subordinate enhanced Node B's (eNBs)) to take advantage of multiple reception to improve link performance and reduce interference. During CoMP operation, central processing unit (CPU) performs scheduling and coordinates the transmissions by the subordinate eNBs over non-ideal backhaul links. One issue with CoMP operations is that is difficult to schedule and synchronize transmissions to UEs over non-ideal backhaul links due to latency. Furthermore, the additional latency associated with non-ideal backhaul links makes it difficult to support continuous transmissions from all downlink subframes.
Thus there are general needs for systems and methods for CoMP operations that more efficiently schedules and synchronizes transmissions to UEs over non-ideal backhaul links. There are also general needs for systems and methods for CoMP operations that can support continuous transmissions from downlink subframes taking into account additional latency associated with non-ideal backhaul links.